[Ohio-Talk] adjusting to blindness experience

[Dave Bertsch]

Oh I know that chapter up there in Cleveland is always looking to serve and help, they have an outstanding President and leader!

-----Original Message-----
From: Suzanne Turner [mailto:smturner.234 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 11:39 AM
To: 'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List'
Cc: 'Dave Bertsch'
Subject: RE: [Ohio-Talk] adjusting to blindness experience

Dave,

Thank you for sharing! If you have members who would like for the Seminar to
be conducted, let us know and we will do our best to accommodate.!

Cleveland is always seeking an opportunity to give back!

Suzanne 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Dave Bertsch via
Ohio-Talk
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 9:15 AM
To: NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Dave Bertsch <dwbertsch at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Ohio-Talk] adjusting to blindness experience

Ohio, our newest member in Akron Jamie, attended the Adjusting to Blindness
workshop in Cleveland a few weeks ago. She was ill this past weekend and
missed our meeting, so could not share her experience with our chapter, but
she has told me about her day at the event. It sounds like a tremendous and
valuable experience for her and her husband Curt, one that I hope we see
again soon. I asked her if I could share what she told me about it with our
members and here are her comments:

Dave, absolutely, it was so much information I needed a night and the day to
rest. We were able to download an app NVDA onto my laptop and I'm currently
using it now. However, my fingers type faster than it says the letters I
type. LOL. It reads everything, even Facebook. This app was recommended by
Eric Duffy. I met Eric and his wife Shelly, I also met Richard Payne,
Suzanne Turner, and many others. We began with information about the NFB,
introduced ourselves and said how long we were blind, what we expected to
get out of the day in 60 seconds. There was quite a bit of joking and
laughing, but also lots of learning experiences. After lunch we broke up
into groups.

For O & M I was with Jackson and Shelly who worked with me on the correct
way of holding and using the cane inside a building and outside. He
explained about clicking your fingers or tongue to listen to sounds. They
went over going up and down steps and how Curt is to help me correctly if I
need the help because of balance.

Our 2nd group was computers which Eric and I spoke about NVDA, JAWS, OOD,
and my current SSD case. Just in these short 50 minute sessions I still
couldn't believe how much I learned. But they all repeated how you have to
practice, which I left encouraged especially after hearing their individual
stories and how they went through denial, anger, etc, the grief process as I
was taught when I when working as a nurse.

Our 3rd group was about assistive devices and a little on cell phones, we
did a bit research and got my phone to talk and annoy me, but they all said
it will take time to get used to.

My last session was braille. I was very interested in this since I always
learned you should have a back up plan cause you never know when you may not
have electronics available to you. I can't wait to see what is in the
Columbus agenda for the convention. Thanks for everything.

End


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